Eyes Like His Brother's
by vieralynn
Summary: Did Penelo correctly set the sign on the sauna door to "women only"? Creepy atmospheric horror. Larsa/Penelo, Basch. For wet!naked!Basch battle on LJ.


_A quick story written for the prompt "wet!naked!Basch - 'I'm sorry'" ... Didn't Penelo remember to set the sign on the sauna to "Women Only?" She swears she did.  
_

* * *

**Eyes Like His Brother's**

First a warm bath and now the sauna.

_Ahhh.._.

Perhaps the Kiltia don't have it so bad? Penelo poured another jug of hot water over the rocks and basked in the steam that managed to dispel every ache in every single muscle of her body.

Then she heard a sound outside: something small clattering onto the floor just before the door opened a few inches and let cold air in.

"Fran?" When she didn't see Fran's ears poke in, Penelo started to wonder. Anyhow, Fran wasn't the sort who would drop something; she was always graceful in the most enviable way.

"I hope you don't mind," a familiar voice said--disturbingly familiar in this context.

Penelo's eyes snapped to look a few feet lower than she first expected. "Larsa!" She clutched at her towel and hastily wrapped it around her. "Didn't you--? What are you--? Uh--?"

Wearing nothing but a white towel wrapped around his waist, Larsa slipped into the sauna and closed the door behind him. "While the Lady Ashe speaks with Gran Kiltias Anastasis, there is something I must ask of you."

With little luck, Penelo struggled in vain to get her towel to cover her from just below her collarbone down to mid thigh. "Larsa! Didn't you see the sign on the door?" She backed up and sat on a bench in the corner, snapping her knees shut as she hunched down trying to keep maintain some sense of decency. But then she realized this was sort of silly. He was just a boy of twelve and she a woman of seventeen. He probably didn't know any better.

"Larsa, didn't you see the sign? I turned it to 'Women Only!"

"Oh, that." Larsa shrugged, indicating that what she had said was the most meaningless scrap of information in the world. He walked across the wooden floor to stand immediately in front of her, so close that she could feel his breath on her face, which felt hotter and more humid than the air in the sauna.

_Oh... this is not right._

"Uh... Larsa?" She could barely squeak out the boy's name.

Normally just a small boy, he was now looking right into her eyes and he stood a couple of inches taller than she sat. If that wasn't creepy enough, he put his hands on her shoulders and grinned at her in a way that twelve year olds should never grin.

She couldn't understand. He seemed like such a nice young boy all the time they had traveled together. She never thought much of it, really, when he curled up next to her at the fire or snuggled beside her in the tent. After all, he was twelve. He was just a sweet kid. But, now...

Now he was leaning forward as if he was going to kiss her. Yes, she was certain he was going to kiss her because now he was pushing his bony hips against her knees in some ungainly attempt to move closer and while every muscle in her body wanted to jump and bolt as fast as she could, she was frozen in terror. This was Emperor Gramis's son. What could he--no, what _would_ he do to her if she pushed him away?

She could feel his left hip rubbing hard against her thigh and all she could see filling her field of vision was Larsa's determined eyes, his oddly cherry-red baby cheeks, and his puckering lips.

_Oh gods, no... make this stop?_

And the door opened and closed just as quickly as it had unlatched. Larsa's hot, sweat-coated bony hip continued to lean into her but he had stopped and turned his head toward the door. Perhaps she could run--

_Oh, no... _

_Wait... Oh. Yes._

Eyes lost from view and hands busily rubbing his bath towel over his wet hair, Penelo took in the view of one terribly familiar body that was now as naked as the day he was born but definitely much more of a sight for the eyes than any child.

Had Basch not seen the sign on the door? She had turned it to 'Women only,' hadn't she?

But for a moment it really didn't matter, did it? For that one long moment before Basch realized she was there, Penelo felt every fiber in her body melting into a puddle of overly wet clay, sinking into the wall in the corner of the sauna.

_Oh, yes..._

It didn't matter how scarred two years in a dungeon left the man. Hell, she already managed to fade some of those scars with cactus jelly. No matter what he has been through, he still had a body and a face found only on statues of a Galtean gods. And other things in common with those statues too.

_Oh, yes... Oh, definitely yes..._

If she had forgotten to flip the sign on the door to 'women only' and this was her punishment, she was not going to complain.

And that's when she noticed the look in Larsa's eyes just before she felt the boy's body pivot against her thigh. She swore she could hear the gears turning and clicking inside his head.

"I see," Larsa said just loud enough to be heard.

And that was the first time that Basch looked around his surroundings. For only a second or two, time felt as slow as the beginning of battle. Penelo watched Basch look at her, look at Larsa, gasp, and then quickly wrap his towel around his waist as his body stiffened. "I'm sorry." He looked away as his hand fumbled for the door but his towel slipped fell to the floor leaving him uncovered once again.

"That's alright." Larsa's voice was frighteningly calm as his hand inched behind Penelo's neck. Pressing his hip into her, he pecked her on the cheek before grinning like a coeurl and turning away.

"I'm _very_ sorry," Basch mumbled as his hands nervously worked his towel around his waist; his back remained toward her.

"Nothing to worry about," Larsa said as he moved toward the door. "It seems the sign on the door was flipped incorrectly."

Quicker than Penelo could count to one, Basch had slipped out of the sauna and Larsa was stepping just behind him. With his hand on the door, Larsa turned to look at her before he left. For the first time, Penelo saw that Larsa shared Vayne's eyes.


End file.
